


Tales of Wanderers

by Anonymous_Vermin_Invader



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Various anonymous scrawlings of dead bugs, Wanderer's Journals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 10:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Vermin_Invader/pseuds/Anonymous_Vermin_Invader
Summary: Relic Seeker Lemm decides that it is about time he got to deciphering the heaping pile of journals that had recently bolstered in size ever since that one little explorer appeared.





	Tales of Wanderers

Relic Seeker Lemm, the grouchy bug squatting in one of the abandoned complexes in the City of Tears, had finally found the time to begin deciphering the heaping pile of journals that had recently bolstered in size ever since that one little explorer appeared. 

Lemm had to admit that the small Knight was an impressive collector, and had sold a great many fine relics and artifacts to him, so much so that he was beginning to wonder if perhaps he’d been offering way too much geo for the trinkets the short fellow found.

Well, there was no time to dawdle over things that couldn’t be changed, and after retrieving his magnifying glass he plucked one of the stone tablets from the pile and began inspecting the various markings along its surface.

The symbols etched into the stone looped and curled, sequences of script occasionally appearing to be scratched into the stone over and over again, scouring deep into the tablet. 

Luckily, the language was not unfamiliar to Lemm and it did not take him long before he deciphered the journal’s contents.

The picture the words painted was a pitiful tale…

 

——

Journal entry #1  
Date: 236 12 H.R.

Dear Journal, 

I’m having trouble thinking about what to write. My mind keeps spinning. I can’t believe this is happening. But looking back on it, I guess I should start at the beginning.

It first started perhaps two or three months ago, I cannot remember exactly when bugs started noticing it, everything was fine until…until the ~~Light~~ the pestillence came.

At first it was only one or two bugs who got sick; they went to sleep for a really long time, and when they woke up they weren’t the same – like they had gone completely mad. Then more bugs started getting sick, first a few then a dozen…then hundreds. Their eyes burned with a horrible light, they started attacking other bugs. ~~I saw one attac~~

Sorry, I’m getting off track. 

I’m hiding in my house right now as I write this. I haven’t went outside for several cycles… ~~I’m too scared to~~ I don’t want to risk any of the Infected knowing that I’m here. They’re vicious, but stupid. So far they haven’t figured out how to open doors.

 

—-

Journal entry #2  
Date: 237 12 H.R.

Dear Journal,

The date might be wrong. I have no way to tell the time now that the clock atop the spire has ceased functioning. I know that it has been more than 24 hours, and the last time I heard the bells toll was sometime last evening cycle. I don’t think anyone is even managing the clock in the Watcher’s tower anymore.

Does that mean that everyone in the city is infected? I haven’t heard or seen any sign of anyone in a while now… ~~What if I’m the only one left?~~ I should probably board up the windows, just to be safe.

I can wait this out. I got food and there’s never any shortage of water here in the city.  
I can just hunker down, wait for all of this to blow over. The King will fix this! He has too! The King wouldn’t abandon us at a time like this; I’m sure he’s got to be thinking of a plan to stop this disease! 

Right, I’ll just stay here. It’ll be okay. 

—-

Journal entry #3  
Date: 23 ~~8~~ 9??? 12 H.R.

Dear Journal,

I am in the closet right now. Somebody is banging at the door. I just wanted a quick peak outside! Why’d one of the Infected have to be right outside my window at the exact same time I gained the courage to look?! 

And I’m not sure, but I think…I think the infected husk is one of my neighbors. Or at least what remains of him. Fleet, I think his name was? The husk has the same grungy old shell as his, but maybe that’s just because of the pestillence.

~~He nono~~ IT wont stop banging at the door! I swear it has been doing it for hours now, I’m too afraid to go downstairs and try to get it to go away. I’m worried that if it keeps going on like this for much longer it’ll break the door down.

—-

Journal entry#4  
Date: ??? 12 H.R.

I don’t even no what time it is. The husk, it got in, I had to escape through one of the windows and then I ran as fast as I could. It isn’t safe in the city anymore, there are infected husks everywhere, even the royal guards are infected! 

Right now I’m holed up near the storerooms, there should be a stagway there, but I don’t want to risk the the possibility that the stags might be infected too. So, my only hope is to make a dash for the elevator, get to the crossroads, and up to Dirtmouth. 

——

The last part of the unknown bug’s journal was written so sloppily that Lemm could hardly make out what it said, only managing to translate a few words that clued him in on the unfortunate bug’s fate.

‘Sentry…got…hiding…bleeding…going to.’

At the very bottom the words were blurred out by a smear of what Lemm could only assume was dried blood.

“Hmph, typical.” The Relic Seeker grumbled as he tossed the journal on to a separate pile marked as ‘Translated’. 

Perhaps another wanderer’s journal would be more informative…

**Author's Note:**

> So, while we're waiting for the Gods & Glory DLC, why not have some fun?
> 
> When I first played the game and came across the wanderer's journals that you can pick up at various locations scattered across Hallownest, I had eagerly expected Lemm to decipher the journals and then read them out to me. 
> 
> And of course, to my utter disappointment, he did no such thing.
> 
> Which was totally unfair, _I wanted story time, damn it!!!_
> 
> So, let's play a game. You know how if you strike some of the bodies where you find a wanderer's journal with the dream nail, they have a single word of dream dialogue? Like, _Lost..._ , _Hide..._ , and _Hungry..._
> 
> If anyone wants me to write the journal entries from a particular corpse you found intriguing, then comment below with the location of said corpse and their dream dialogue (if they have any)! Remember, it has to be a corpse with a wanderer's journal!


End file.
